POW Lynch Flies to U.S. After Treatment

Published 8:00 pm, Friday, April 11, 2003

Associated Press Writer

A plane carrying rescued POW Jessica Lynch left Saturday for the United States after she underwent a week of treatment at a U.S. military hospital in western Germany.

The C-17 military transporter took off from Ramstein Air Base at 2:20 p.m. with the 19-year-old private first class, several members of her family, and some 50 other injured soldiers on board. She was expected to travel to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Lynch, of Palestine, West Va., was captured March 23 after her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was ambushed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. She was rescued from a hospital in the city April 1 by U.S. commandos and airlifted to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

Lynch's condition has improved after treatment at Landstuhl for a head wound, an injury to her spine and fractures to her right arm, both legs, and her right foot and ankle. Gunshots may have caused open fractures on her upper right arm and lower left leg, according to the hospital.

It remains unclear whether the injuries were received when her unit was ambushed or while in captivity. U.S. military officials and her family have yet to discuss how she was injured.

Although she cannot yet stand up, Lynch has been able to sit and talk with her parents, sister and brother and a cousin, who had been staying with her at the hospital since Sunday.

On Saturday, Lynch and her family were brought to the waiting plane in a blue ambulance bus. Lying under a blanket, she was one of twelve patients carried onto the plane on stretchers.

Her relatives were seated separately but military officials said they would be able to move around and talk to their daughter during flight, which was expected to last about nine hours.

"She should receive more physical therapy and rehabilitation" in the United States, said Marie Shaw, a spokeswoman for Landstuhl. It was unclear whether Lynch would require more surgery.